DIY - Electronic garage door?

[preecy]

Hi, i was hoping for some help regarding a diy electric garage door ;)

We have a canopy style garage door which is the entrance to our bac yard. The yard is large enough to park two cars however we normall leave them out on the front street as we're both too lazy to open an close the garage door every evening after work. However my other hal managed to snap one of the small steel ropes which are on both sides o the door (she obviously much stronger than me :p ). Anyway, rather tha looking into repairing the existing garage door i though it could be a opportunity to look into a motorised one.

My questions are :

- how difficult is it to fit an electric garage door.

- suggestions on where to purchase

- rough idea of how much a basic motorise door costs (including an fittings)

- whats the easiest/cheapest style door to fit?

Also, our current garage door has a large metal girder running horizontally, across the top of door. I assume this would need to com down for an electronic one to go in place

-- preecy

[Andy Hall]

You can get garage door openers that can be fitted to an existing door quite effectively.

I had two of them until recently when the doors were replaced. They are widely available. B&Q and Screwfix sell them for example. Screwfix stock codes 95986 and 29522.

They will lift a reasonable weight, but the intent is that the door should be reasonably well balanced rather than relying on that.

You can get bits for repair like cables and springs

is a good source. It would be a good plan to do that before fitting a motor.

Total time for the whole exercise - half a day.

On the other hand, if you want to make a replacement, there are a wide range of products available.

In the mass market there are Garador, Henderson, Cardale and a few others. Expect to pay £1-2k for one of these depending on size, design and materials. There are loads of online places offering these.

I would avoid the really low end because they entail a real compromise on material quality and probably won't last well.

In the mid to good quality market, Hoermann is probably the leader, especially if you like the idea of a sectional door and it suits the property. These are a good quality German product and I am not sure of exact prices, but would suspect around £3-4k depending on style and size.

the upper end you can go for substantial products and custom designs. Silvelox is a good example here, but you could expect to pay somewhat more... all cases, fitting is not difficult but could be dangerous if you are not careful. Even the cheaper doors have considerable weight and there is plenty of potential for crushed fingers and other bits, although once fitted, nowadays they are safer than older doors. Certainly it's a two person job.

When looking at motors, make sure to go for something that at least detects resistance to closing. Ideally there should be a light beam near floor level and one on the door as well.

[Matty F]

Around here there are basically three types of electrically opening garage doors.

1. Tilt door - in one piece that protrudes out the front while opening, so you can't have the car too close. Has levers and springs that poke backwards while opening. Usually has gaps all around the door that let the weather in. Cheap and simple. Quiet while closing. Can have almost any design, e.g. panels and windows in it. Good if there is limited headroom. Burglars can poke a hooked wire through the gap at the top to open the door unless well designed. Causes severe injury to people who undo the bolts holding the springs.
2. Roller door. Limited to a horizontal corrugated design, that still looks OK, but cannot have panelled design. Seals well. Can be noisy when opening and closing. Very safe.
3. Sectional door. Has around 4 hinged sections held by a track on each side. Can have panels and windows. Fairly quiet. Seals well against weather. Needs lots of room above the door for the track and the chain that closes it. If not enough room use a roller door. While closing, it has gaps that can squeeze the fingers of children or stupid people.

[Antony]

replace a broken Cardale up-and-over. The Hormann is completely weathertight, insulated, quiet and looks very attractive (I think) with the Georgian style panels. My model isn't electrified, though it is designed specifically with that in mind (I had to modify it to make it manual). Installation was an easy DIY job. I bought mine off ebay for

350 (7x7 EPU40 double steel skin, 20mm insulation, pre-coated white). I've seen the motor/remote units listed there regularly as well.

If you want to buy from a more regular source, there's this lot (no personal experience):

didn't say what size your door is, but the pricing is in the

600-1200 range, much lower than Andy indicated. A motor adds a couple of hundred on top.

-Antony

[preecy]

thanks all for your feed back, its much appreciated ;)

As its a small garage door i was hoping i could pick up a motorise roller or sectional garage door for around the £500 mark. Howeve judging from your feed back and googling the net i think £1000 is more realistic figure.

Unfortunatly I think it's a case of having the exsisting door repaire for the time being as my other half has pretty much spent any saving we had on a trip to marituis. Any how thanks for links ill keep the for when my bank balance eventually comes out of the red :

-- preecy

[ARWadsworth]

[John]

Ensure the door is really well balanced and lubricated before contemplating ELECTRIC (not electronic) operation.